Delgadillo, J. orcid.org/0000-0001-5349-230X, Branson, A., Kellett, S. et al. (3 more authors) (2020) Therapist personality traits as predictors of psychological treatment outcomes. Psychotherapy Research, 30 (7). pp. 857-870. ISSN 1050-3307
Abstract
Aim: To investigate if therapists’ personality influences their patients’ treatment outcomes.
Methods: N = 4,052 patients were treated by 69 therapists, including 36 Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs) and 33 Cognitive Behavioural Therapists (CBTs). Therapists completed the NEO-PI-R personality inventory, they reported years of clinical experience, and expert assessors rated their clinical competence and reflective abilities. Their patients completed pre and post-treatment measures of depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7). Associations between therapist personality traits and patient treatment outcomes were examined using multilevel modelling, controlling for therapist demographics, clinical experience, technical competence and reflective ability.
Results: Relative to other sources of variability, therapists accounted for 1% to 3% of overall variability in treatment outcomes. However, the magnitude of systematic heterogeneity in performance between therapists was around 6%, such that the best-performing therapists outperformed average therapists by a margin of moderate to large effects (g = .57 to 1.10). Clinical experience, technical competence and reflective ability were unrelated to treatment outcomes. Patients treated by PWPs with above-average agreeableness scores and CBTs with above-average openness to experience scores had poorer treatment outcomes.
Conclusions: Therapist effects may be partly explained by the influence of their personality on their work with anxious and depressed patients.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 Society for Psychotherapy Research. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Psychotherapy Research. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | therapist effects; cognitive behavioural therapy; depression; anxiety |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 19 Feb 2020 12:00 |
Last Modified: | 10 Dec 2021 15:03 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/10503307.2020.1731927 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:157365 |